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Katie and I talk about stress, optimism and even a little bit of Freud in this week’s podcast. We explore it though from the perspective of stress not being “just” something that is occurring in our external circumstances. Dr. Marty Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has explored the concept of learned helplessness in his research and has identified two personality styles known as either the Optimistic Explanatory style or the Pessimistic Explanatory style. These two styles have different ways in which they explain certain events occurring in their life. These ways of “talking to ourselves” may have a great deal to with the stress that we experience. We even give you the model to check out your own thinking.

This model incorporates the ABCD and E model to check out our own thinking and when it is on the side of too much pessimism, we can change it by disputing our own thinking. And, if you want to check out your own explanatory style, you can find the quiz by going to the questionnaire menu at the Authentic Happiness site at the University of Pennsylvania.